With an ever-increasing awareness of global energy consumption and related environmental concerns, demands for “green” industrial processes are growing. An industrial move toward more environmentally benign practices may become inevitable as local and global credits for such practices become more mainstream, and, likewise, as anticipated “carbon taxes” drive markets away from environmentally malignant practices: One way of enhancing industrial environmental stewardship and avoiding these potential financial pitfalls is through the retrieval and use of biorenewable materials for industrial applications. Efficient and “green” biomass processing can, for example, transform relatively cheap, crude natural materials such as trees and crops into materials useful in a number of markets including paper and pulp, pharmaceuticals, and commodity chemicals, to name a few.
In paper and pulp industries, for example, a need exists for improved methods aimed at processing lignocellulosic biomass. Specifically, the fractionation and retrieval of both lignin and cellulose can be a difficult challenge, and a need exists for improved processes directed at the fractionation and extraction of these two components, particularly since the uses of both lignin and cellulose are so widespread. Cellulose, for example, is used as paper, glucose, and alcohol precursors, while lignin finds use in binders, dispersants, emulsifiers, and recently, in carbon fiber materials. With pulp mill sales reaching $34 billion during 2006 and annual growth rates for this industry projected to be between 2 and 8% in North and South America, it is readily apparent that a more efficient lignocellulosic biomass processing method could lead to increased profits for this industry.
Thus, a need for improved and “green” separation techniques for biomass, and more specifically, improved lignocellulosic biomass separation techniques, exists. This need and other needs are at least partially satisfied by the multiphasic compositions and methods of using such compositions disclosed herein.